Freedom, God, and Worlds

Michael J. Almeida

A complete revision of well-established arguments in philosophy and theology

A significant contribution to the debate on arguments from evil

Freedom, God, and Worlds

Michael J. Almeida

Description

Michael J. Almeida presents a powerful argument which holds that several widely believed and largely undisputed objections to the idea of the existence of God are in fact just philosophical dogmas. He challenges some of the most well-entrenched principles in philosophical theology, which have served as basic assumptions in influential apriori, atheological arguments. But most theists also maintain that the principles express apriori necessary truths, including those principles that are presumed to follow from the nature of an essentially omnipotent, essentially omniscient, essentially perfectly good and necessarily existing being. Among the atheological arguments that deploy these philosophical dogmas are the Logical Problem of Evil, the Logical Problem of the BestPossible World, the Logical Problem of Good Enough Worlds, the Problem of Divine Freedom, the Problem of No Best World, and the Evidential Problem of Evil. In Freedom, God, and Worlds Almeida claims that these arguments present no important challenge to the existence of an Anselmian God. Not only are these philosophical principles false, they are necessarily false.

Freedom, God, and Worlds

Michael J. Almeida

Table of Contents

Introduction1. A Moderate Anselmian Plea2. Metaphysical Atheological Arguments and the Free Will Defense3. Three Important Objections4. Unrestricted Actualization, Freedom and Morally Perfect Worlds5. The Logical Problem of Evil Redux6. Four Important Objections7. Four More Objections8. Redeeming Worlds9. ConclusionsBibliographyIndex

Freedom, God, and Worlds

Michael J. Almeida

Author Information

Michael J. Almeida is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Texas at San Antonio, where he has taught since 1990. He completed his PhD at the Ohio State University, and his research specializes in metaphysics, philosophy of religion, and ethical theory.